Thank You for Voting UT Dallas into the Finals of the 2012 AICPA Accounting Competition

Naveen Jindal School of Management students (left to right) Sam Teichelman, Shahrzad Azimi, April Crawford and Trey Sweeney make up Working Capitol, the UT Dallas team in the semifinals of the 2012 AICPA Accounting Competition.

For the third consecutive year, a Jindal School of Management team has made it into the finals of the annual nationwide accounting competition sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

The JSOM team, Working Capitol, will compete against two other finalist teams in in-person presentations and question-and-answer sessions before a panel of judges in Washington, D.C., December 16 to 18.

Last year, the JSOM team of Highly Debticated earned third place and $2,500 in the business challenge. In 2010, the JSOM team Eco Consulting earned $10,000 and first place in the inaugural AICPA contest.

“Three different teams, three times in a row to the AICPA case final round,” team adviser and JSOM Undergraduate Accounting Program Director John Barden said. “I have to say that this points out that we have the best students, faculty and administration.”

The competition has challenged World Capitol to solve the nation’s fiscal policy issues as part of a campaign team for a U.S. presidential candidate. For the semifinals. the team outlined its solutions in a video on the This Way to CPA Accounting Competition website.

In public balloting that was part of the semifinals, Working Capitol and its video garnered 1,935 votes — more than either of its finalist competitors. But in determining which teams advanced, the judges assigned every team’s vote total 10 percent in evaluation criteria that also was based on video content (20 percent), real-world applicability (20 percent), persuasiveness (20 percent), supporting documentation (15 percent), creativity (10 percent) and video quality (5 percent).

Going forward, “we are just going to make sure we know our [presentation] backward and forward,” Working Capitol team captain April Crawford said, “anticipate any flaws the judges may ask about and think ahead.”